1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface-conductive electron beam source and a method for manufacturing the same, and particularly, it relates to a display device equipped with the electron beam source having an electron-emitting portion.
2. Related Background Art
FIG. 8 shows the constitution of a surface-conductive electron-emitting device having a pair of electrodes disposed with the interposition of an electrode gap. In this drawing, reference numeral 4 is a substrate made of quartz, numerals 1 and 2 are electrodes formed on the substrate 4, and 6 is an electrode gap. Numeral 3 denotes an electron-emitting portion. In this conventional electron-emitting element, the electron-emitting portion 3 is formed on a fine particle film in the electrode gap 6. However, among such conventional electron-emitting elements, values of emission current scatter, and therefore industrial problems are present at the time of the mass production of these devices. In a display device in which a plurality of such devices are arranged and images are depicted with electrons emitted therefrom, the scatter of the emission current in the respective devices directly gives rise to the scatter of luminance, which leads to the deterioration of the quality of the display.
In addition U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,110 of the applicant of the present application can be enumerated as conventional prior art of the device.
The scatter of the emission current is caused by various factors, but the present invention intends to provide a solution means which comprises inhibiting the scatter of film resistance properties.
As the factors in connection with of the scatter of the film resistance properties, there can be considered some factors regarding film quality such as adhesive properties of the film, unevenness of film thickness, presence of film defects and nonuniform distribution of fine particles.